Privacy policy.

This site and business are run by James McHugh, trading as Local IT Help (ABN 14 723 053 435), Donvale VIC. I'm a one-person business — the only person who sees your details is me.

As a small business, the Privacy Act 1988 mostly doesn't apply to me. I follow the Australian Privacy Principles anyway, because it's the right way to handle someone's home and computer.

What I collect

When you book a visit — your name, phone number, email address, street address and suburb, the service you picked, a description of the problem, and your preferred time. The address is needed because I come to you.

When you request a software quote — your name, email address, mobile number, address and a description of the project, plus the options you tick.

Automatically, with either form — your IP address and the time you submitted it. This is only used to catch spam and abuse.

During and after a visit — notes about what I found and what I did, so a follow-up visit doesn't start from scratch, and the invoice details: what the job was, the amount, how it was paid and any payment reference.

I never see or store your card numbers. Card payments go through the payment terminal or the payment link, and bank transfers go through your bank.

I also don't ask for and don't want your passwords in writing. If a job needs one, you type it in yourself, or tell me at the time and I don't record it.

Why I collect it

• To arrange the visit and get to the right address
• To send you a booking confirmation, a reminder the day before, and an invoice or receipt
• To do the work, and to pick up where I left off if you book again
• To keep the business records the ATO requires
• To answer you if you get in touch about a past job

I don't sell your details, I don't rent them out, and I don't send marketing emails to customers who haven't asked for them.

Who else sees it

Running the site and the business needs a handful of services. Each one only gets what it needs:

• Amazon Web Services — sends the confirmation, reminder and invoice emails, and stores the encrypted nightly database backup. Both in AWS's Sydney region.
• Google Calendar — a confirmed visit (your name, address, phone number and the problem description) is written into my own work calendar, so my diary is on my phone. That calendar isn't shared with anyone.
• Google Analytics and Google Ads — anonymous visit statistics on the public pages, and measuring which ads lead to enquiries. This never includes your booking details.
• Cloudflare — runs the domain's DNS and the anti-spam check on the quote form.
• Mappify — the address autocomplete. What you type into the address box is sent to look up matching Australian addresses.
• Anthropic — software quote requests only. The project description is sent to generate a draft estimate. Nothing from a computer-help booking is ever sent to it.
• Zeller — card payments and payment links.

Beyond that, I'd only hand over your details if the law required it.

Where it's kept, and for how long

Your details sit in a database on the server that runs this site, with an encrypted backup taken each night. Backups are deleted automatically after 90 days.

Booking and invoice records are kept for at least five years, because tax law requires it. Notes from a visit are kept as long as you're a customer, so the next visit is faster.

Cookies

The public pages set a Google Analytics cookie and, if you arrived from an ad, a Google Ads measurement cookie. The quote form's anti-spam check sets a short-lived token. The only other cookie is the sign-in session for the admin area, which is just me.

You can block or clear all of them in your browser and every page on this site still works.

Getting a copy, a correction, or a deletion

Email james@localithelp.com.au or call 0481 344 099 and ask. You can request:

• A copy of everything I hold about you
• A correction, if something's wrong
• Deletion — I'll delete everything except the invoice records tax law makes me keep

No forms, no charge. I'll come back to you within a few days.

If you're not happy

Tell me first — most things are a misunderstanding I can fix the same day. If we can't sort it out, you can take it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. There's no archive of old versions — if you need to know what it said on a particular date, ask me.

Questions about any of this? Email james@localithelp.com.au. See also the terms of service.